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Catholic 
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DIRECTORY OF THE CRUSADE 


+e + & 


President 
RT. REV. BISHOP THOMAS JOSEPH SHAHAN, S.T. D., J. U.L., 
Rector of the Catholic University of America, 
Washington, D. C. 


ob ee ae 


Executice Board 
Chairman, VERY REV. FRANCIS J. L. BECKMANN, S. T. D., 
Rector of Mount St. Mary Seminary, 
Mt. Washington Station, 
Cincinnati, Ohio. 


Student Committeemen 
FRANK A. THILL, Secretary. J. PAUL SPAETH, Treasurer. 
Mount St. Mary Seminary, Mt. Washington Station, 
Cincinnati, Ohio. 


+t & & 


Field Secretary 
FLOYD KEELER, 
Apostolic Mission House, 


Brookland Station, Washington, D. C. 


To those who wish to know the ideal of 
the Catholic Students’ Mission Crusade this 
pamphlet is offered. In it the salient features 


of the organization are exposed briefly and 
clearly. It also contains suggestions as how 
best to form a Mission Society. 


Published by 


THES EXE CULIVE BOARD VOR THE 
CATHOLIC STUDENTS’ MISSION CRUSADE 


April, 1919. 


Nihil obstat: 
Die 10 Aprilis, 1919. 
Franciscus J. L. Beckmann, S.T.D., 
Censor Deputatus. 


Imprimatu?: 
Die 10 Aprilis, 1919. 
t Henricus Moeller, 


Archiep. Cincinnatensis. 


The Catholic Students’ 
Mission Crusade 


eS Se 


DEFINITION OF THE CRUSADE 
(J HE Catholic Students’ Mission Crusade is an organization 


to promote the interests of home and foreign missions. 

And although it is already established in Canada and runs 
parallel to similar student mission movements in Ireland, Italy 
and Colombia, South America, the international character of the 
work is excluded from the plan of this pamphlet. 


The Crusade, as stated above, is a students’ movement, and 
by that token it appeals especially to the Catholic young men 
and Catholic young women who are enrolled in institutions of 
higher learning in the United States. And while it excludes as 
members the pupils of our parochial schools, who can be or- 
ganized by our religious teachers to do good work for the Society 
of the Holy Childhood and other children’s mission enterprises, 
all other Catholic students are included within the possibility 
of membership. ‘““The Sacred Heart for the World, and the 
World for the Sacred Heart’’ expresses in words the ideal which 
fired the conception and the realization of this new organization; 
and to attain the object of this effort will require every spark 
of available energy, no matter where it exists. To the student 
element among our Catholic young women as well as to our 
young men has been directed the appeal of nations eagerly 
awaiting the Cross. And though the first convention consisted 
of representatives from colleges and universities where young 


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men only are educated, yet the past months have witnessed the 
formation of most enthusiastic Crusade units in several prom- 
inent colleges and academies for women. University scholar, 
undergraduate and high school pupil will take the Cross beside 
seminarists and religious, and to no one who is zealously inter- 
ested in this cause will be denied an actual participation in the 
glory of a mighty conquest. 


MAKE-UP OF THE CRUSADE 
HX the very outset it is necessary to understand that the 


Crusade, as such, is composed of societies as units, which 

are confederated in order to realize more easily their 
common aim. An individual young man or young woman, 
therefore, can have no standing in the movement; but to be- 
come a Crusader he or she must belong to a mission society 
which has been affiliated as a unit with the Catholic Students’ 
Mission Crusade. The mission society, accordingly, composed 
of several members, is the basis of organization. 


And by a mission society is understood not only a group of 
individuals who are united for the sole purpose of aiding Catholic 
missions, but also a section or group within any organization, 
such as sodality or literary club, whose aim it is to interest 
themselves in Catholic mission activity. 


The governing body of the Crusade is composed of a Presi- 
dent, an Executive Board of three members, an Advisory Board 
and a Field Secretary. The President and the members of the 
Executive Board are elected by the units in general assembly, 
while the members of the Advisory Board and the Field Secre- 
tary are designated by the President and his Executive Com- 
mittee. From this it is evident that the mode of government 
is purely representative and together with the great freedom 
of individual societies, which will be described below, must 
necessarily fulfill the supreme requirement of our American 


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temperament, For although the Crusade, at present, is under 
the patronage and immediate executive direction of the highest 
ecclesiastical persons, and undoubtedly will always remain so, 
yet its basic principles are truly democratic. 


The individual societies of which the Crusade is composed 
enjoy the greatest freedom. For, the Crusade, as such, does not 
aim to supplant nor to antagonize any of the existing mission 
agencies or societies, but wishes to become merely a force by 
which these agencies and societies shall be supplied with greater 
funds and more vocations. So that, any society affiliated with 
the Crusade is free to adopt as the beneficiary of its charity: 
The American Foreign Mission Society; the Society of the 
Divine Word; the Society of the Holy Childhood; the Society 
for the Propagation of the Faith; the Society of the Holy Land; 
the American Catholic Church Extension Society; or the mis- 
sions of any religious order or community under whose auspices 
it has been organized. In no sense is the Crusade to become a 
clearing-house for the distribution of funds collected in the vari- 
ous societies of which it is made up. For the constitution leaves 
to each society the disbursement of its own collections, according 
to the taste or the devotion of the individual group. 


To become members of the Catholic Students’ Mission 
Crusade, therefore, it is necessary that a group of students unite 
for the purpose of supporting by prayer, study and alms some 
Catholic mission enterprise; and secondly, that, in their appli- 
cation for affiliation, they promise to adhere to the constitution 
of the Crusade. The material obligations of this constitution, 
which are assumed by affiliation, are embodied in Article III, 
Section 2, of the document: “The constituent units shall be 
Catholic student organizations which shall report quarterly to 
the Executive Board full details of mission activity, including 
a statement of all contributions to home and foreign missions 
made by the unit or its members. Each unit shall furnish to 
the Executive Board an annual per capita tax of twenty-five 


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cents which shall serve to defray the expenses of general govern- 
ment and shall entitle all members to receive the official organ 
which is to be conducted by the Field Secretary.” In con- 
nection with the official organ it may be stated that government 
restrictions on white paper during the early part of the last 
year, together with the newness of the movement, prohibited 
this venture. At present, announcements, news, and official 
reports of the Crusade are appearing in a special Crusade 
Department of The Missionary magazine, published in 


Washington, D. C. 


OBJECT OF THE CRUSADE 
( HE purpose for which the organization was established 


is embodied in the constitution, and is expressed in 

Article I], Section 1: “This is to be an organization of 
Catholic students to promote the interests of home and foreign 
missions.” A phrase so flexible as this was studiously incorpor- 
ated in the constitution because, to the Catholic mind, the 
promotion of an enterprise is not limited to financial support. 
To the students who assembled to perfect this young organiza- 
tion it was evident that the first need of Catholic missions is 
the assistance of prayer. And, realizing that ‘Unless the Lord 
build the house, they labor in vain that build it,” the convention 
of July, 1918, admits to full and unqualified membership, without 
financial obligations, mission societies founded among students 
of religious orders and congregations. This, however, does not 
exclude a voluntary contribution from such order or congregation 
to help pay expenses such as the maintenance of field secretaries, 
the cost of producing propaganda literature, etc., which are 
incurred by the executive branch of the Crusade. 


At this point it should also be noted that home missions 
as well as foreign missions are included in the scope of the 
movement. For, besides the peculiar appeal of personal interest 


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conveyed to many minds by the idea of home missions, it is true 
that those who surround us more closely truly deserve the 
exercise of our Christian charity. It is true that at present 
scarcely fifty per cent of the Indians of this country belong to 
the Church; that there are from ten to twelve million negroes 
within the confines of this country who have a claim to the 
attention of the Catholic Church, and that, according to the 
superior of one of the most successful missions among the 
negroes; “The efforts thus far made by the great Catholic 
Church in America to win over the negro race have been sur- 
prisingly out of proportion with the magnitude of the task. 
The Protestants have literally strewn the South with educational 
institutions for the negro; institutions ranking all the way from 
the kindergarten to the university; while we Catholics have not 
yet provided the colored people with one college or school of 
higher learning that can bear the name.” It is also true that 
approximately fifty millions, or one-half, of our population 
profess no religion at all; and that, but for the religious revolt 
of the sixteenth century, twenty-five’to thirty millions now pro- 
fessing Protestantism would at present hold berths in the ship 
of Peter. Out of the remaining twenty millions who have the 
Truth there is surely sufficient opportunity for the student 
element to exercise genuine Christian zeal. 


That the foreign mission field is equally deserving of the 
conscientious consideration and the support of every Catholic 
student, in fact, that it is the foreign field which especially needs 
our assistance is evident from a knowledge of existing conditions. 
To any one who realizes that, during the past, foreign mission 
work was carried on most extensively by European missionaries, 
and supported by European money, it must be evident that our 
World War has weakened considerably the Catholic missions. 
There are 800,000,000 pagans in foreign countries, and to a 
nation which during the past year has vindicated its idealism 
and spiritual outlook, such an appeal cannot remain unanswered. 


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We possess human sympathy; there are among us men high in 
the social and professional circles of life who consider it a privilege 
to work on behalf of abused animals; surely Christian charity 
demands that we do as much for the souls of men. 


Do Catholic students realize that the 800,000,000 souls who 
are in paganism and who need the Gospel Truth so much, must 
have our assistance very soon? That they are dying at the rate 
of 70,000 every day and of over 25,000,000 every year? Do they 
know that human sacrifice and devil-worship continue still to 
desecrate the world in this our age of boasted enlightenment? 
That there are more heathen in the world today by over two 
hundred million than there were when Jesus died for them? 
Is it nothing to Catholic students that they have received the 
grace of faith and are here given the opportunity to share in 
the work of carrying its inestimable graces to those less fortunate? 


And the Catholic students of the United States can do much. 
During thirty years the Protestant students of the United States 
and Canada, through their organization known as the Student 
Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions, have actually placed 
in their foreign missions 7,656 missionaries and have become the 
bulwark of the Protestant mission cause. We do not wish to 
imply that Catholic foreign missions are not supported. In fact, 
comparative tables of statistics very frequently do injustice to 
our Catholic people, because detailed statements of our expendi- 
tures cannot be had in many cases. But the fact to be empha- 
sized is, that our Catholic students have been doing compara- 
tively little for the missions. “Our generous and faithful con- 
tributors are the poor. . . The rich congregations, the fash- 
ionable colleges and academies contribute little or nothing to 
the cause.”” (Annals of the Progagation of the Faith, June, 1916.) 


If the Catholic students in the United States realized that 
in some mission fields such as India, the Protestants are main- 
taining nineteen educational institutions to our one, they could 


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not resist the argument. If Catholic students knew that the 
600,000 children abandoned yearly in China could be rescued 
not only from bodily death, but that they could be saved for 
the Church and Heaven, their Christian charity must rouse 
them to action. If our Catholic students had the opportunity 
to hear from the lips of some foreign missionary the indescribable 
hardships and handicaps under which he works, their generosity 
and willingness to pray and to sacrifice would be compelled. 
And if Catholic students knew the depth of supernatural vision, 
to say nothing of the aesthetic value, to be derived from inform- 
ing themselves on mission conditions, every Catholic institution 
of learning in our country would soon boast a mission study 
club. And then would cease the closing of our orphanages, our 
leper asylums, our hospitals and dispensaries in foreign lands. 
Then would be perpetuated the fruit of Catholic toil and blood. 
And to a nation which responded so nobly to the cry of a dis- 
tressed world could not be attributed the stigma: “America 
would not help when Europe could not.” 


It is the presentation to our Catholic students of mission 
facts and needs such as these which is the primary work of the 
Catholic Students’ Mission Crusade. And it is hoped that, by 
organizing our students and by impressing on them the crying 


needs of our missions, the sympathy of Catholic students will 
be awakened and their support secured for Catholic mission 


enterprise. 


HISTORY OF THE CRUSADE 


HE idea of this movement which has crystallized into 

J what promises to become an international students’ 
organization, was conceived and nurtured in solitude and 
humility; and the only reason for now exposing it is to dispel 
any scepticism as to the unselfishness which motived its pro- 
motion. To both of our foreign mission establishments here in 


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the United States—Maryknoll and Techny—can be assigned the 
glory or the responsibility of furthering the project. For it 
was an article which appeared during the winter term of 1914-15 
in the Maryknoll organ, The Field Afar, that inspired a young 
student of philosophy, with the Fathers of the Divine Word at 
Techny, with the notion of the present Catholic students’ 
mission movement. Mr. Clifford King was scarcely in a position 
to pursue his plan, as any one acquainted with the discipline 
of a religious community can well appreciate. And the fact that 
he was not permitted to act until fully two years later demon- 
strates conclusively that the Fathers of the Divine Word were 
not enthusiastically sanguine about the project. However, the 
young man cherished his convictions that the Catholic students of 
the United States could be organized on behalf of missions if 
actual conditions and needs were presented for their considera- 
tion. And so, after much prayer and waiting, encouraged the 
while by the faithful friend of the Crusade, Father Bruno 
Hagspiel, S. V. D., he and his associates were finally permitted 
in May, 1917, to issue a circular appeal for the organization of 
Catholic students in the mission cause. This was followed by 
an extensive Bulletin in October, 1917, carrying answers to 
questions which had been proposed in the previous circular; and 
containing motives for the immediate formation of as many 
student organizations as possible. In May, 1918, followed a 
second Bulletin, containing cordial approbations from Cardinal 
Farley, six bishops, fifteen heads of educational institutions and 
eight Catholic papers and magazines. The Conference at St. 
Mary’s Mission House, Techny, Ill., during the days of July 
27, 28, 29 and 30, 1918, was the direct result of invitations to 
organize, carried in these two Bulletins. 


Techny was selected as the place of the convention because 
of its central location and because, through the generosity of 
the Fathers of the Divine Word, the delegates could there be 
afforded board and lodging during the sessions free of charge. 


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The Techny Fathers, however, insisted from the very beginning 
that the Crusade should be altogether the work of students and, 
once the movement had been formally organized, they wished 
to withdraw entirely any directive influence which circumstances, 
in the beginning, had forced them to assume. The constitution 
of the new Crusade and the details of its organization have 
effected this arrangement, for at present only the students at 
Techny are connected with the Crusade, enjoying those pre- 
rogatives common to the twenty-two organizations which are 
the constituent units of the Catholic Students’ Mission Crusade. 


One hundred prelates, priests and laymen constituted the 
assembly, representing thirty colleges and universities, eight 
religious orders and five mission propaganda societies. From 
their deliberations during four days resulted the constitution of 
which much has been said; and the following list of officers 
represents the unanimous choice of the assembly: President, 
Rt. Rev. Bishop T. J. Shahan, Rector of the Catholic University 
of America; Executive Board, Chairman, Very Rev. F. J. 
Beckmann, Rector of Mt. St. Mary Seminary, Cincinnati, Ohio, 
with A. L. Schumacher and Frank A. Thill, students of the 
same institution, as assistant committeemen. The name of 
Bishop Shahan, prince of educators in our country, and that of 
Dr. Beckmann sufficiently guarantee the unqualified sincerity of 
the movement. 


APPROVAL OF THE HIERARCHY 


HAT the Crusade, besides enjoying the prerogative of hav- 

j ing eminent Churchmen at its head, has the full approval 
of the highest ecclesiastical authorities in our country is 
evident from the blessing bestowed upon the work by the 
Apostolic Delegate, Archbishop Bonzano, when petitioned by 
the Chairman of the Executive Board to endorse the organiza- 
tion. Archbishop Mundelein of Chicago, in whose Archdiocese 
the first convention was held, sent his blessing to the delegates, 


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and regretted that a previous engagement made impossible 
personal participation in the deliberations. Approbation and 
letters of encouragement from Cardinals Gibbons, O’Connell and 
Farley are reprinted in the first pages of Bulletin No. 3. And 
Bishop Allen of Mobile, Bishop Brossart of Covington, Bishop 
Dowling of Des Moines, at present Archbishop of St. Paul, 
Bishop Koudelka of Superior, Bishop Schuler of El Paso, and 
Bishop Schrembs of Toledo had already endorsed the movement 
in its infancy. In addition to these communications, the Crusade 
has in the files of its correspondence many letters from missionary 
bishops and vicars-apostolic acclaiming the movement as a God- 
send. 


HOW TO ORGANIZE A MISSION SOCIETY 
GA vivo the object and constitution of the Crusade, con- 


vinced that the motives which prompted its formation are 

really compelling, and reassured by the high ecclesiastical 
approbation which the movement enjoys, the determination to 
form or to sanction a Mission Society in your institution is a 
reasonable conclusion. And the method of forming such a society 
depends on the kind of organization which you establish, ac- 
cordingly as your society takes on the aspect of being a section 
within an organization already existing, or becomes a separate 
moral entity. 


The section, as explained in the beginning of this pamphlet, 
is merely a group of individuals within a larger society, who are 
interested in the work of Catholic missions. Should a few, there- 
fore, out of a larger society determine to study, pray and work 
for Catholic missions, they are eligible as a unit to become 
federated with the Catholic Students’ Mission Crusade. And 
should the whole of your sodality, literary club, or whatever 
organization you may have, determine to devote some time and 
energy to the mission ideal, either within or without the time 
of regular meetings of such sodality or club, the whole is eligible 


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to become federated as a unit of the Catholic Students’ Mission 
Crusade. The standing in the Crusade of such an organization 
does not differ from that of a distinct mission society, and the 
division is made merely to forestall the objection that too many 
societies in an institution are undesirable. It may here be said 
that several units of the Catholic Students’ Mission Crusade 
which are the most enterprising and successful, are sections 
within larger societies other than distinctive mission societies. 


The distinct mission society is, of course, the ideal; and 
whenever possible, your enthusiasm should crystallize into a 
distinct moral being: the Mission Society. The formation of 
such a society is secured in just the same way as that in which 
other permanent societies are organized. The entire procedure 
from the selection of a temporary chairman to the signing of 
the constitution may be found in any manual dealing with 
parliamentary law or rules of order. (Cf. Robert’s “Pocket 


Manual of Rules of Order,’ Sec. 48, p. 149.) 


The peculiar complexion of your constitution will, as already 
made clear, depend upon the taste or devotion of the group 
to which you belong. You may devote your entire attention 
to one or the other group of missions, and select as the bene- 
ficiary of your material and spiritual sacrifices that agency or 
religious community which cares for the needs of those particular 
missions. Or, if your number justifies the division, your society 
could be divided into groups, to one of which would be assigned 
the interests of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith; 
to another the work of the Catholic Foreign Mission Society of 
America; to a third could be allotted the study of the work 
carried on by the Society of the Divine Word; while to a fourth 
could be given the interests of the American Catholic Church 
Extension Society, or of home missions in general, etc. 


The formation of an intelligent constitution implies to some 
extent the institution of a mission study class, which, in reality 
is the essential and fundamental requisite of any successful 


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mission society. Mission alms-giving is only at best secondary, 
and must never be made the primary goal of your endeavor. 
Prayer and a spirit of self-sacrifice have ever been the touch- 
stone to distinguish things Catholic. 


HOW TO JOIN THE CRUSADE 
(ee you have formed a society, the process of affiliation 


is not a complicated function. As stated above, it is 

necessary merely to apply for such to the Executive 
Board: at the same time promising to abide by the constitution 
of the Catholic Students’ Mission Crusade. A certificate or 
formal acknowledgment will then be forwarded to you. And 
you will have taken the Cross. You will be helping considerably 
in the noblest work which God has imposed on man. For in a 
way, you shall then go forth to teach all nations. Your sacrifices 
will knit you more closely to that powerful and sublime society, 
our Holy Church, which is the mystic body of Christ. Then 
will come to you that strength and supernatural nobility of 
character which comes with an actual participation in the 


battle for Christ and His Church. 


There is imperative need for converts to the cause. The 
War, before our entry into it, had already drained to an alarming 
extent the material resources and man-power of Catholic mis- 
sions. The missions are really suffering, and unless the prestige 
and material resources of our people are shared with Catholic 
missions, the edifice cemented with tears and blood is liable to 
weaken and, in some places, to fall. 


Never has an appeal like this gone forth to the Catholic 
student body of the United States, and those who presage failure 
neglect to understand the spirit of piety and of unselfishness 
which is characteristic of our American young men and young 
women. There is no height of achievement to which they may 
not aspire; and in this work of helping to propagate the one 


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saving religion, than which there is no task more holy and more 
necessary, they will find an object worthy of their best 
aspirations. 


Catholic students, young men and young women! To each 
of you, no matter how humble, how retiring, is offered an op- 
portunity to do great things for God and souls. The spirit of 
Peter the Hermit and of St. Bernard is urging a twentieth cen- 
tury crusade, as noble and as chivalrous as that which prompted 
Christian armies to traverse a continent for the purpose of 
saving from desecration the sepulchre of the Lord. 


Catholic students! Follow the lead of those students, who, 
animated by a great, throbbing enthusiasm, are straining every 
nerve to make this a big, a national organization. 


Catholic students! The work has been started and its object 
is too noble, too holy, too necessary, not to succeed. God 
wills it! 


Page 


N OGES 


Bulletin No. 3, of the Catholic Students’ Mission Crusade, 
which contains a detailed report of the Techny conference, an 
extensive history of the movement, and a copy of the consti- 
tution, may be had gratis from Mr. Floyd Keeler, Field Secre- 
tary, Apostolic Mission House, Brookland Station, Washington, 
DAG: 


&F F&F & & 


The Executive Board deals primarily with questions of an 
executive nature. Inquiries for information will be handled as 
promptly as possible if addressed to this department. Such 
requests, however, receive immediate attention if addressed to 
the Field Secretary. 


All money orders and checks for the Crusade should be made 
payable to “The Treasurer, Catholic Students’ Mission Crusade.” 


Tyee ghee Sy pasty okey 


See the inside front cover of this pamphlet for the present 
location of executive branches of the Crusade. 


HELP US TO DISTRIBUTE THIS 
PAMPHLET: 


If it contains a message for you, perhaps 
the information would be welcomed by 
another. 


For extra copies, address 
THE CATHOLIC STUDENTS’ MISSION CRUSADE, 
Office of the Executive Board, 
MT. ST. MARY SEMINARY, 
MT. WASHINGTON STA., CINCINNATI, OHIO. 


OTe 
MR. FLOYD KEELER, Field Secretary, 


APOSTOLIC MISSION HOUSE, 
BROOKLAND STA., WASHINGTON, D. C. 


